1000+ images about portraits of cecil beaton on Pinterest | Rabbit costume, Irving penn and Whistler Cecil Beaton Self-portrait c.1930 " I want to make photographs of very elegant women taking the lipstick off their teeth." Cecil Beaton See More Cecil Beaton Biography - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline Photographers Cecil Beaton Biography Cecil Beaton was a celebrated English photographer who had won an Academy Award for his stage and costume designs. This biography provides detailed information about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.

Quick Facts Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton Nationality Reddish House, Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, England Personality Type Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton (1867â1936) mother 1955 - Tony Award for Best Costume Design 1957 - Tony Award for Best Costume Design 1958 - Academy Award for Costume Design More Awards 1960 - Tony Award for Best Costume Design 1960 - Chevalier de la LÃ©gion d'Honneur 1964 - Academy Award for Best Art Direction 1964 - Academy Award for Costume Design 1970 - Tony Award for Best Costume Design Image Credit Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton was an English photographer best known for his portraits of celebrities captured in avant-garde settings. A famous characteristic of his work was that he would go to any lengths to capture a particular lookâsubjects were made to lie down, climb trees, perch upon a ladder or simply wear a poker face in order for him to take innovative photographs. His fascination with photography began when he used to look at pictures of society women and celebrities in magazines as a young boy.

He received his first camera when he was 11 and thus began his long term love affair with images and photography. His two younger sisters became his first models and they readily humored their brother by posing for him in imaginative costumes. He had no interest in academics and though he went to college for sometime he dropped out before graduation. He started working for the British edition of âVogueâ where he became famous for his fashion photographs and society portraits. During the Second World War, he became the countryâs leading war photographer and captured the horrors of the war in poignant details in his photographs. He also worked as a stage and costume designer for which he won an Academy Award. Childhood & Early Life He was the eldest son of Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton and Etty Sissons. His father was a timber merchant with a well established business. Cecil had three younger siblings - one brother and two sisters. He attended Heath Mount School and St. Cyprianâs School. He was artistically very gifted and was a good painter and a singer. He received a camera for his eleventh birthday and developed a lifelong fascination with photography. He used to dress up his little sisters in elaborate costumes and take their pictures.

He enrolled at St. Johnâs College, Cambridge, to study history, art, and architecture. He continued pursuing photography as a hobby. Realizing that he had no real interest in academia, he quit college in 1925. Career He joined his fatherâs timber business but found the work to be incredibly boring. He had an equally unsuccessful experience as an office worker with a cement manufacturer. He realized that his real passion was photography and held his first exhibition under the patronage of Osbert Sitwell in the Cooling gallery in London. The exhibition was a hit, and introduced the new talent to the world of photography. He went to New York in 1928. There he became acquainted with the editors of âVogueâ and âVanity fairâ. Over the next few decades he would work for both the magazines and specialize in fashion photographs and society portraits. In 1930 he published a collection of his portraits called âThe Book of Beautyâ. He secured a 15-year lease on Ashcombe, a 18th century mansion where the society people got together on weekends for performing amateur plays.

He was often invited to photograph the Royal Family for official publication. He had taken several pictures of the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth, and also served as the wedding photographer at the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He was posted to the Ministry of Information during the Second World War and was assigned to shoot pictures of the war front. He captured the horrors of the war through his lenses and brought them to the world. One of his most poignant pictures was of a little girl hugging a teddy bear as she lay wounded in a hospital. After the war he tried his hand at stage and costume designing. He designed the stage, sets and costumes for a revival of the play âLady Windermereâs Fanâ (1946), âThe Grass Harpâ (1952), âThe Chalk Gardenâ (1955), âSaratogaâ (1959) and âCocoâ (1969). Over the next few decades he actively designed the stages and costumes for several plays including âMy Fair Ladyâ (1956) which led to film offers.

He reprised his role of stage and costume designers for the film musicals âGigiâ in 1958 and âMy Fair Ladyâ in 1964. He was also a noted diarist, famous for his acerbic tone of describing people. He published six volumes of his diaries while he was alive (from 1922 till 1974). Major Works As a fashion and portrait photographer he was famous for clicking the pictures of high profiles celebrities like Greta Garbo and Queen Elizabeth. His war time photographs are said to be pivotal in convincing America to help Britain during the difficult war period. He was also a stage and costume designer for Broadway plays and films, a work which earned him much acclaim and several prestigious awards. Awards & Achievements He is the recipient of two Academy Awards for Best Costume Design: âGigiâ (1958) and âMy Fair Ladyâ (1964). He won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design four times (1955, 1957, 1960 and 1970).

Personal Life & Legacy He had been in relationships with several men and women including swordsman Kin Hoitsma, actresses Greta Garbo and Coral Browne. For years he was obsessed with the art collector Peter Watson though the two men were never in a relationship. He suffered a stroke in 1972 that left him completely paralyzed on the right side of his body. His health deteriorated over the next few years and he died in January 1980. Translate this page to Spanish, French, Hindi, Portuguese Pictures of Cecil Beaton Cecil Beaton | LGBT Info | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit Beaton was born in Hampstead the son of Ernest Beaton, a prosperous timber merchant, and his wife Etty Sissons. His grandfather had founded the family business of Beaton Brothers Timber Merchants and Agents, and his father followed into the business. Ernest Beaton was also an amateur actor and had met his wife, Cecil's mother, when playing the lead in a play. She was the daughter of a Cumbrian blacksmith who had come to London to visit her married sister. [1] They had four children - in addition to Cecil there were two daughters Nancy and Baba, and another son Reggie.

Cecil Beaton was educated at Heath Mount School and St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, where his artistic talent was quickly recognized. Both Cyril Connolly and Henry Longhurst report in their autobiographies being overwhelmed by the beauty of Beaton's singing at the St Cyprian's school concerts. [2] [3] When Beaton was growing up his Nanny had a Kodak 3A Camera, a popular model which was renowned for being an ideal piece of equipment to learn on. Beaton's nanny began teaching him the basics of photography and developing them in his basement. He would often get his sisters and mother to sit for him. When he was sufficiently proficient, he would send the photos off to London society magazines, often writing under a pen name and ‘recommending’ the work of Beaton. [4] Beaton went on to Harrow , and then, despite having little or no interest in academia, moved on to St John's College , Cambridge , and studied history, art and architecture.

Beaton continued his photography, and through his university contacts managed to get a portrait sitting with the Duchess of Amalfi — actually George "Dadie" Rylands , and as Beaton recalled years later: "It was a slightly out-of-focus snapshot of him as Webster's Duchess of Malfi standing in the sub-aqueous light outside the men's lavatory of the ADC Theatre at Cambridge." [5] The resulting images gave Beaton his first ever piece of published work when Vogue magazine bought and printed the photos. [4] Beaton left Cambridge without a degree in 1925, but only coped with salaried employment in his father's timber business for eight days. [5] His brother Reggie however entered the business and remained until his death in October 1933. Career Edit Beaton designed book jackets and costumes for charity matinees, learning the professional craft of photography at the studio of Paul Tanqueray , until Vogue took him on regularly in 1927.

[5] He also set up his own studio, and one of his earliest clients and, later, best friends was Stephen Tennant ; Beaton's photographs of Tennant and his circle are considered some of the best representations of the "Bright Young Things" of the twenties and thirties. He was a photographer for the British edition of Vogue in 1931 when George Hoyningen-Huene , photographer for the French Vogue traveled to England with his new friend Horst . Horst himself would begin to work for French Vogue in November of that year. The exchange and cross pollination of ideas between this collegial circle of artists across the Channel and the Atlantic gave rise to the look of style and sophistication for which the 1930s are known. [6] Beaton is best known for his fashion photographs and society portraits. He worked as a staff photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue in addition to photographing celebrities in Hollywood. Beaton's first camera was a Kodak 3A folding camera. Over the course of his career, he employed both large format cameras, and smaller Rolleiflex cameras.

Beaton was never known as a highly skilled technical photographer, and instead focused on staging a compelling model or scene and looking for the perfect shutter-release moment. Beaton often photographed the Royal Family for official publication. [7] Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother was his favourite Royal sitter, and he once pocketed her scented hankie as a keepsake from a highly successful shoot. Beaton took the famous wedding pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (wearing an ensemble by the noted fashion designer Mainbocher ). During the Second World War , Beaton was initially posted to the Ministry of Information and given the task of recording images from the home front. During this assignment he captured one of the most enduring images of British suffering during the war, that of three-year-old Blitz victim Eileen Dunne recovering in hospital, clutching her beloved teddy bear. When the image was published, America had not yet officially joined the war — but splashed across the press in the USA, images such as Beaton’s helped push the American public to put pressure on their Government to help Britain in its hour of need.

[4] Beaton had a major influence on and relationship with two other leading lights in British photography, that of Angus McBean and David Bailey . McBean was arguably the best portrait photographer of his era — in the second part of McBeans career (post war) his work is clearly heavily influenced by Beaton, though arguably McBean was technically far more proficient in his execution. Bailey was also enormously influenced by Beaton when they met whilst working for British Vogue in the early 1960s, Bailey's stark use of square format (6x6) images bears clear connections to Beaton's own working patterns. Stage and film design File:Bookcover-hepburn-by-beaton.jpg After the war, Beaton tackled the Broadway stage, designing sets , costumes, and lighting for a 1946 revival of Lady Windermere's Fan , in which he also acted. Additional Broadway credits include The Grass Harp (1952), The Chalk Garden (1955), Saratoga (1959), Tenderloin (1960), and Coco (1969). He is the winner of four Tony Awards .

Diaries Edit Cecil Beaton was also a published and well known Diarist. In his lifetime six volumes of diaries were published, spanning the years 1922-1974. Recently a number of unexpurgated diaries have been published. These differ immensely in places to Beaton's original publications. Fearing libel suits in his own lifetime, it would have been foolhardy for Beaton to have included some of his more frank and incisive observations. [8] Personal life Edit In 1972, he was knighted . Two years later he suffered a stroke that would leave him permanently paralysed on the right side of his body. Although he learnt to write and draw with his left hand, and had cameras adapted, Beaton became frustrated by the new limitations the stroke had put upon his work. As a result of his stroke, Beaton became anxious about financial security for his old age and, in 1976, entered into negotiations with Philippe Garner, expert-in-charge of photographs at Sotheby's .

On behalf of the auction house, Garner acquired Beaton's archive — excluding all portraits of the Royal Family, and the five decades of prints held by Vogue in London, Paris and New York . Garner, who had almost singlehandedly invented the photographic auction, oversaw the archive's preservation and partial dispersal, so that Beaton's only tangible assets, and what he considered his life's work, would ensure him an annual income. The first of five auctions was held in 1977, the last in 1980. By the end of the 1970s, Beaton's health had faded to that of an old man. In January 1980, he died during the night at his grand home in Broad Chalke in Wiltshire, at the age of 76. [4] The great love of his life was the art collector Peter Watson , although they were never lovers. He had relationships with various men, and claimed to have had an affair with the American actor Gary Cooper , who was a close friend of his for many years.

He also had relationships with some women, including the actress Greta Garbo and the British socialite Doris, Viscountess Castlerosse . His heterosexual virginity was taken by the American socialite Marjorie Oelrichs. Work Ashcombe The Story of a Fifteen-Year Lease,1949 Photobiography, 1951 My Bolivian aunt: a memoir My royal past Self-portrait with friends : the selected diaries of Cecil Beaton 1926-1974. The wandering years; diaries, 1922-1939. The years between; diaries 1939-44. The strenuous years, diaries 1948-55. The restless years : diaries, 1955-63. The parting years : diaries, 1963-74. The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1970-1980.

Beaton in the Sixties: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1965-1969 Cecil Beaton's 'Fair Lady', (1966) (diary excerpts and costume sketches) The face of the world : an international scrapbook of people and places. I take great pleasure. P His name was familiar to me, but I’ll admit that before this post, I didn’t know much about Cecil Beaton. If I’m honest, it was actually his 18th century English manor I fell in love with, Reddish House; the conservatory to be specific. A conservatory or sun parlour if you will, is just the sort of thing I long for in life; the cherry on the cake in my dream home. It is the centrepiece of Reddish House, where Beaton called home from 1947 until his death in 1980 and is buried in the churchyard. But let’s stay a moment… He transformed the interior of the Grade II listed manor house adding rooms, extending the parlour and introducing endless new fittings.

The upper floor had once been equipped for illegal cock-fighting of all things at the beginning of the 20th century. Instead of throwing out the cages that were still there when he bought the house, Cecil used them as wardrobes to store the oscar-winning costumes from his set design of My Fair Lady. Of course, Reddish house was made all the more colourful by the people Beaton invited into it. Greta Garbo was a regular visitor. Francis Bacon, Bianca Jagger, Jean Shrimpton, David Hockney and countless actresses and models have all been photographed by Cecil at Reddish House. Bianca Jagger photographed by Beaton Beaton pictured in his conservatory with longtime friend David Hockney, also pictured below. Actress Leslie Caron, promotional shots Beaton took for her film ‘The Doctor’s Dilemma’ in the Winter Garden, at Reddish.

But if like me, you were born a decade or two late and you’re scratching your head for a reminder, a hint of exactly who Cecil Beaton was or what exactly it is he did, here are some of the things I found most interesting … He was a sort of jack of all trades, but extremely talented in all of them. He was a fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre. Beaton was also named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1970. As a child, his nanny taught him the basics of photography and developing film on her Kodak 3A camera. When he was good enough, he would send the photos off to London society magazines, often writing under a pen name and ‘recommending’ the work of Beaton. Through his university contacts, he eventually managed to get a portrait depicting the Duchess of Malfi published in Vogue. The portrait was actually of his friend George “Dadie” Rylands – “a slightly out-of-focus snapshot of him standing outside the men’s lavatory of the ADC Theatre at Cambridge.

You can get a pretty good idea of the kind of people he’d actually go on to photograph here . Beaton’s contact sheet of Queen Elizabeth By the 1930s, he was being handsomely paid as a resident photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair in New York, but here’s something I didn’t like about him. Known for photographing everyone from the royal family to Hollywood royalty, “in 1938 he inserted some tiny-but-still-legible anti-Semitic phrases (including the word ‘kike’) into American Vogue at the side of an illustration about New York society”. The issue was recalled and reprinted at vast expense, and Beaton was fired. He returned humiliated to England, where he changed course and became a war photographer, a very good one. His range broadened and his style sharpened. During the Second World War, he captured one of the most enduring images of British suffering during the war, that of 3-year-old Blitz victim clutching her teddy bear. Beaton’s image, splashed across the press in the U.S., helped push the Americans to help Britain in its hour of need. Jean Shrimpton at Reddish House.

After the war, Cecil became an inspiration to a new generation of iconic photographers such as David Bailey and Angus Bean, names I’m more familiar with. You could say Cecil Beaton taught David Bailey everything he knows. Beaton then turned to Broadway and Hollywood set and costume design. He won two academy awards for his work in Gigi and My Fair Lady. Cecil was also a published and well-known diarist. “In the published diaries, opinions are softened, celebrated figures are hailed as wonders and triumphs, whereas in the originals, Cecil can be as venomous as anyone I have ever read or heard in the most shocking of conversation”. Greta Garbo at the entrance of Reddish House in Wiltshire, England Beaton had relationships with both men and women, including Olympic swordsman Kin Hoitsma, actress Greta Garbo and dancer Adele Astaire. Although apparently the great love of his life was the art collector Peter Watson, with whom he was never actually with. As he neared the end of his life, Beaton sold off his photographic archive to Sotheby’s. It was the sale of his life’s work that more or less invented the concept of the photographic auction.

The last auction was held the same year of Beaton’s death in 1980. You can see a short video tour of Cecil Beaton’s Reddish house studio here . Photographs mostly (c) Sotheby’s found via this Pinterest board . SHARE 1000+ images about Beaton, Cecil on Pinterest | Cecil Beaton, Diana mitford and Marlene dietrich Sir Cecil Beaton CBE (1904 – 1980). Miss Nancy Beaton holding a daisy, age 17, c. 1926. [Pinned 27-iii-2016] See more reviews_and_ramblings | Denham Fouts & Peter Watson Reload page in style: site light Elisa - My reviews and Ramblings LGBT reviews and ramblings since 2006 Denham Fouts & Peter Watson reviews_and_ramblings Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre.

He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1970. The great love of his life was the art collector Peter Watson, although they were never lovers. He had relationships with various men, including former Olympic swordsman Kin Hoitsma. He also had relationships with women, including the actresses Greta Garbo and Coral Browne, the dancer Adele Astaire, and the British socialite Doris Castlerosse. Beaton was born on 14 January 1904 in Hampstead the son of Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton (1867–1936), a prosperous timber merchant, and his wife Etty Sissons (1872–1962). His grandfather, Walter Hardy Beaton (1841–1904), had founded the family business of Beaton Brothers Timber Merchants and Agents, and his father followed into the business. Ernest Beaton was also an amateur actor and had met his wife, Cecil's mother, when playing the lead in a play. She was the daughter of a Cumbrian blacksmith named Oldcorn who had come to London to visit her married sister.

It is through this connection that Cecil is related to the Blessed Father Edward Oldcorne who was involved in the Gunpowder Plot. They had four children — in addition to Cecil there were two daughters Nancy (1909–99) and Baba (1912–73), and another son Reggie (1905–33). Marilyn Monroe Peter Watson was a wealthy English art collector and benefactor, an avid art collector acquiring works by such artists as Miró, Klee, and Pablo Picasso, which were displayed in his Paris apartment in the 1930s. He funded the literary magazine, Horizon, edited by Cyril Connolly. In 1930, society photographer, artist and set designer Sir Cecil Beaton began a lifelong obsession with Watson, though the two never became lovers. One chapter from Hugo Vickers' authorized biography of Cecil Beaton is titled "I Love You, Mr. Watson". Stephen Tennant Nancy married Sir Hugh (Smiley Baronets) (1905–90) and Baba married Alec Hambro.

Cecil Beaton was educated at Heath Mount School (where he was bullied by Evelyn Waugh) and St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, where his artistic talent was quickly recognised. Both Cyril Connolly and Henry Longhurst report in their autobiographies being overwhelmed by the beauty of Beaton's singing at the St Cyprian's school concerts. When Beaton was growing up his Nanny had a Kodak 3A Camera, a popular model which was renowned for being an ideal piece of equipment to learn on. Beaton's nanny began teaching him the basics of photography and developing film. He would often get his sisters and mother to sit for him. When he was sufficiently proficient, he would send the photos off to London society magazines, often writing under a pen name and ‘recommending’ the work of Beaton. Beaton attended Harrow, and then, despite having little or no interest in academia, moved on to St John's College, Cambridge, and studied history, art and architecture.

Beaton continued his photography, and through his university contacts managed to get a portrait sitting with the Duchess of Malfi — actually George "Dadie" Rylands and, as Beaton recalled years later, "It was a slightly out-of-focus snapshot of him as Webster's Duchess of Malfi standing in the sub-aqueous light outside the men's lavatory of the ADC Theatre at Cambridge." The resulting images gave Beaton his first ever piece of published work when Vogue magazine bought and printed the photos. Beaton left Cambridge without a degree in 1925, but only coped with salaried employment in his father's timber business for eight days. His brother Reggie however entered the business and remained until his death in October 1933. For fifteen years between 1930 and 1945, Beaton leased Ashcombe House in Wiltshire, where he entertained many notable figures. In 1948 he bought Reddish House, set in 2.5 acres of gardens, approximately 5 miles to the east in Broad Chalke. Here he transformed the interior, adding rooms on the eastern side, extending the parlour southwards, and introducing many new fittings.

Greta Garbo was a visitor. The upper floor had been equipped for illegal cock-fighting at the beginning of the 20th century but Beaton used the cages as wardrobes to store the costumes from his set design of My Fair Lady. He remained at the house until his death in 1980 and is buried in the churchyard. In 1947, he also bought a townhouse at number 8 Pelham Place in London. Beaton designed book jackets and costumes for charity matinees, learning the professional craft of photography at the studio of Paul Tanqueray, until Vogue took him on regularly in 1927. He also set up his own studio, and one of his earliest clients and, later, best friends was Stephen Tennant; Beaton's photographs of Tennant and his circle are considered some of the best representations of the Bright Young People of the twenties and thirties. He was a photographer for the British edition of Vogue in 1931 when George Hoyningen-Huene, photographer for the French Vogue traveled to England with his new friend Horst. Horst himself would begin to work for French Vogue in November of that year.

The exchange and cross pollination of ideas between this collegial circle of artists across the Channel and the Atlantic gave rise to the look of style and sophistication for which the 1930s are known. Beaton is best known for his fashion photographs and society portraits. He worked as a staff photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue in addition to photographing celebrities in Hollywood. Beaton's first camera was a Kodak 3A folding camera. Over the course of his career, he employed both large format cameras, and smaller Rolleiflex cameras. Beaton was never known as a highly skilled technical photographer, and instead focused on staging a compelling model or scene and looking for the perfect shutter-release moment. Beaton often photographed the Royal Family for official publication. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother was his favourite Royal sitter, and he once pocketed her scented hankie as a keepsake from a highly successful shoot. Beaton took the famous wedding pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (wearing an haute couture ensemble by the noted American fashion designer Mainbocher).

The Duke of Windsor (Edward VIII) and Duchess of Windsor on their wedding day, June 3, 1937 Princess Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth II During the Second World War, Beaton was initially posted to the Ministry of Information and given the task of recording images from the home front. During this assignment he captured one of the most enduring images of British suffering during the war, that of three-year-old Blitz victim Eileen Dunne recovering in hospital, clutching her beloved teddy bear. When the image was published, America had not yet officially joined the war—but splashed across the press in the US, images such as Beaton’s helped push the American public to put pressure on their Government to help Britain in its hour of need. Beaton had a major influence on and relationship with two other leading lights in British photography, that of Angus McBean and David Bailey. McBean was arguably the best portrait photographer of his era—in the second part of McBean's career (post-war) his work is clearly heavily influenced by Beaton, though arguably McBean was technically far more proficient in his execution.

Bailey was also enormously influenced by Beaton when they met while working for British Vogue in the early 1960s, Bailey's stark use of square format (6x6) images bears clear connections to Beaton's own working patterns. After the war, Beaton tackled the Broadway stage, designing sets, costumes, and lighting for a 1946 revival of Lady Windermere's Fan, in which he also acted. His most lauded achievement for the stage was the costumes for Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady (1956), which led to two Lerner and Loewe film musicals, Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964), both of which earned Beaton the Academy Award for Costume Design. He also designed the period costumes for the 1970 film On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. Additional Broadway credits include The Grass Harp (1952), The Chalk Garden (1955), Saratoga (1959), Tenderloin (1960), and Coco (1969). He is the winner of four Tony Awards.

He also designed the sets and costumes for a production of Puccini’s last opera Turandot, first used at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and then at Covent Garden. He also designed the academic dress of the University of East Anglia. Cecil Beaton was also a published and well-known diarist. In his lifetime six volumes of diaries were published, spanning the years 1922–1974. Recently a number of unexpurgated diaries have been published. These differ immensely in places to Beaton's original publications. Fearing libel suits in his own lifetime, it would have been foolhardy for Beaton to have included some of his more frank and incisive observations. He was made a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours 1972. Two years later he suffered a stroke that would leave him permanently paralysed on the right side of his body. Although he learnt to write and draw with his left hand, and had cameras adapted, Beaton became frustrated by the limitations the stroke had put upon his work.

As a result of his stroke, Beaton became anxious about financial security for his old age and, in 1976, entered into negotiations with Philippe Garner, expert-in-charge of photographs at Sotheby's. On behalf of the auction house, Garner acquired Beaton's archive—excluding all portraits of the Royal Family, and the five decades of prints held by Vogue in London, Paris and New York. Garner, who had almost singlehandedly invented the photographic auction, oversaw the archive's preservation and partial dispersal, so that Beaton's only tangible assets, and what he considered his life's work, would ensure him an annual income. The first of five auctions was held in 1977, the last in 1980. By the end of the 1970s, Beaton's health had faded. In January 1980, he died at Reddish House, his home in Broad Chalke in Wiltshire, at the age of 76.

Burial: All Saints Churchyard, Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, England Twiggy Wyndham Sisters Cecil Beaton's costume designs for My Fair Lady added immeasurably to the success of Lerner and Lowe's musical both in New York and London. Set in 1914, Beaton was able to look back on the period of his childhood and to incorporate fashions remembered from relatives, family friends and the picture postcard beauties that he avidly collected. However, the dress he designed for Eliza at the Embassy ball is timeless, and the simplicity and uncluttered line look forward to the 1960s as much as back to pre-1914. The impact of the dress was especially strong as it was first seen not in the ballroom scene, amid many other beautiful dresses, but in the dark, masculine setting of Higgins's batchelor establishment as Eliza descended the wooden staircase to the strains of 'I could have danced all night.' Given to the V&A Museum by the Friends of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Exhibition: Silk Stars of the Theatre Museum (Liberty & Co Department Store 20/09/1982-29/10/1982). Tiara for the Queen of Transylvania worn by Margaret Halstan in the London production of the musical 'My Fair Lady', Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 30th April 1958. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play 'Pygmalion', the music for the musical was composed by Frederick Lowe, and the book and lyrics were by Alan Jay Lerner. The production was directed by Moss Hart, the sets were designed by Oliver Smith, and the costumes were designed by Cecil Beaton. The production starred Julie Andrews as Eliza Dolittle and Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins. This bears a label for Margaret Halstan, who played the Queen throughout most of the London run for My Fair Lady. It differs in scaled from photographs of her in the role, but it is possible that she had more than one made in different weights. Denham Fouts (9 May 1914 – 16 December 1948) was an American male prostitute, socialite and literary muse.

He served as the inspiration for characters by Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Christopher Isherwood and Gavin Lambert. (P: Denham Fouts (©2)) From Jacksonville, Florida, he was born Louis Denham Fouts, a son of Yale graduate Edwin Fouts, who was the president of a broom factory, and his wife, the former Mary E. Denham (1890-1970). He had two siblings, Ellen (born 1916) and Frederic (1918-1994). In 1926, 12-year-old Fouts submitted a letter to Time Magazine, protesting the abuse of animals in the making of movies. In his teens, Fouts worked as a clerk at an ice-cream company in Jacksonville. Later he was sent north by his father to Washington, D.C., having asked a relative, who was the president of Safeway Inc., to give him a job.

Fouts left for Manhattan, working for a time as a stock boy and attracting a good deal of attention for his looks, which were described as "thin as a hieroglyph, he had dark hair, light brown eyes, and a cleft chin." Writer Glenway Wescott considered him "absolutely enchanting and ridiculously good-looking." He was taken up by a series of wealthy male and female patrons. His friends, who called him Denny, included Christopher Isherwood, Brion Gysin, Glenway Wescott, Truman Capote, George Platt Lynes, Jane and Paul Bowles, Jean and Cyril Connolly and Michael Wishart. Isherwood described him as a mythic figure, "the most expensive male prostitute in the world" and Capote considered him the "Best-Kept Boy in the World". Fouts was an opium addict, and at one time boyfriend of artist Peter Watson. In 1938, Fouts introduced Brion Gysin to Paul and Jane Bowles, later shocking them by "shooting flaming arrows from his hotel window onto the busy Champs Élysées below", having spent some time in Tibet, learning archery.

Fouts' occasionally outrageous behavior made some uncomfortable. Michael Shelden remarked that Fouts' "'Deep South' charm masked a volatile, sometimes nasty temper. There were rumours about his past and tales of erratic, dangerous behavior." During World War II, Watson sent Fouts to the US for his safety. He met Isherwood in Hollywood in August 1940. Isherwood's guru, Swami Prabhavananda, refused to accept Fouts as a disciple despite his interest in Vedanta. Isherwood, nonetheless, had Fouts move in with him in the summer of 1941 to "lead a life of meditation". This period is described in Isherwood's Down There on a Visit , where Fouts is represented as the character Paul. Some time into the war, Fouts, who was a conscientious objector, was drafted for the Civilian Public Service Camp. He later completed his high school diploma, studied medicine at UCLA and then settled in Europe. While in Paris, he sent a blank check to Truman Capote with only the word "come" written on it, after becoming enamored of the Harold Halma photograph of Capote on the original back dust jacket of Other Voices, Other Rooms.

Capote rejected the check, but accepted his offer to visit, and would spend hours with Fouts in his dark apartment on the Rue de Bac, talking and listening to Fouts' stories. Fouts was allegedly the lover of numerous notable figures, including Prince Paul of Greece (later King), and French actor Jean Marais. Another of his lovers was Evan Morgan, 2nd Earl of Tredegar. Capote, in exaggeration of his prowess, claimed that "had Denham Fouts yielded to Hitler's advances there would have been no World War Two." Katherine Bucknell, the editor of Christopher Isherwood's diaries, noted "Myth surrounds Denham Fouts", and one of his friends, John B. L. Goodwin said of Fouts, "He invented himself. If people didn't know his background he would make it up." Fouts spent much of his later life dissolute, spending time "in bed like a corpse, sheet to his chin, a cigarette between his lips turning to ash.

His lover Anthony Watson-Gandy (1919–1952), a writer and translator, would remove the cigarette just before it burned his lips." Fouts died in 1948, at the Pensione Foggetti, in Rome, at the age of 35 of a "hypoplastic aorta and hypertrophy of left ventricle". His body was buried in the first zone, 11th row, of the city's Protestant Cemetery. A friend, John Goodwin, told Christopher Isherwood that Fouts was found dead in his bathroom. Anthony "Tony" Blethwyn Watson-Gandy (1919-1952), British RAF flying officer and scholar, educated at Westminster, King's College, Cambridge, and the Sorbonne. His parents were minor gentry, and his father a soldier like Isherwood's. Watson-Gandy translated from French The Rise and Splendour of the Chinese Empire (1952) by Rene Grousset. Gavin Lambert's roman-à-clef Norman's Letter is about Fouts.

Truman Capote's "Unspoiled Monsters", contained in his Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel , is based on Capote's conception of Fouts' life. Gore Vidal's short story "Pages from an Abandoned Journal", contained in his 1956 volume, A Thirsty Evil: Seven Short Stories , is based on Fouts' life. Vidal was introduced to Fouts by John Lehmann. Christopher Isherwood's Down There on a Visit contains the novella Paul, whose titular character is based on Fouts. Michael Wishart, the painter, had an affair with Fouts, which his autobiography High Diver details. s Victor William (Peter) Watson (14 September 1908 – 3 May 1956) was a wealthy English art collector and benefactor. He funded the literary magazine, Horizon, edited by Cyril Connolly.

(Picture: Pavel Tchelitchew (Russian, 1898-1957), Portrait of Peter Watson, With the Mayor Gallery, Ltd., London, Purchased from the above by the family of the present owner (Private collection, England) on 6th July 1956) Peter Watson was the son of William George Watson, later Sir George Watson and was the youngest of three children—his brother Norman was born in 1897 and sister Florence in 1894. He was educated at Eton College and Oxford University. Watson was an avid art collector acquiring works by such artists as Miró, Klee, and Pablo Picasso, which were displayed in his Paris apartment in the 1930s. He was the principal benefactor of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and also provided financial assistance to English and Irish painters Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and John Craxton. In 1930, society photographer, artist and set designer Sir Cecil Beaton began a lifelong obsession with Watson, though the two never became lovers. One chapter from Hugo Vickers' authorized biography of Cecil Beaton is titled "I Love You, Mr. Watson".

In 1940 Watson provided funding for Cyril Connolly's Horizon and became its arts editor. Stephen Spender was also involved with the magazine initially. Watson was also art editor for the magazine during its existence from 1940 to 1949. He rarely contributed written inputs, but gave many opportunities for his friends to get their pictures into Horizon, and also encouraged Horizon to look beyond British Art and particularly to Paris. He commissioned articles on artists barely known in England, such as Balthus, Morandi and Klee. He persuaded Picasso's dealer, Daniel Kahnweiler, to comment on the contemporary art market; and he also got Michel Leiris to write about Giacometti. Spender recalled to Connolly's biographer, Clive Fisher, that Watson hated "priggishness, pomposity and almost everything to do with public life," and he suspected that he had educated himself "through a love of beautiful works and of people in whom he saw beauty ...".

He added "When I think of him then, I think of his clothes, which were beautiful, his general neatness and cleanness, which seemed almost those of a handsome young Bostonian." Norman Fowler was the boyfriend of Peter Watson from 1949 onward. He had been in the navy and possibly was an epileptic; he was evidently psychologically disturbed. When Watson drowned in his bath in 1956, Fowler was in the flat; the police dismissed foul play, but the death remained suspicious. After Watson's death, Fowler bought a hotel, called The Bath Hotel, on Nevis, in the British Virgin Islands, and lived there until he himself drowned in the bath in 1971, within weeks of the fifteenth anniversay of Watson's death. Fisher writes that Peter Watson "was a figure of striking attractiveness; women in particular seem to have found his manners irresistible... almost everyone appears to have liked him." One of Watson's lovers was the American male prostitute and socialite Denham Fouts, whom he continued to support even after they separated as a result of Fouts' drug addiction. Watson was found mysteriously drowned in his bath on 3 May 1956.

Some have suggested that he was murdered by his young American lover, Norman Fowler (from whom Bacon stole £300 to go gambling). Norman Fowler was the boyfriend of Peter Watson from 1949 onward, and heir to most of Watson's estate. He had been in the navy and possibly was an epileptic (he was subject to unexplained fits or seizures from which he sometimes had to be roused); he was evidently psychologically disturbed. When Watson drowned in his bath in 1956, Fowler was in the flat; the police dismissed foul play, but the death remained suspicious. After Watson's death, Fowler bought a hotel, called The Bath Hotel, on Nevis, in the British Virgin Islands, and lived there until he himself drowned in the bath in 1971, within weeks of the fifteenth anniversay of Watson's death. Watson's sister, Florence Nagle, fought a prolonged battle against Britain's Jockey Club, the controlling body for horse racing. His brother Norman provided funding for the early development of Lake Louise, a ski resort in Alberta, Canada.

limyrevandra-20 Days of Love chronicles more than 700 LGBT couples throughout history, spanning 2000 years from Alexander the Great to the most recent winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Many of the contemporary couples share their stories on how they met and fell in love, as well as photos from when they married or of their families. Included are professional portraits by Robert Giard and Stathis Orphanos, paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini, and photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnson, Arnold Genthe, and Carl Van Vechten among others. “It's wonderful. Laying it out chronologically is inspired, offering a solid GLBT history. I kept learning things. I love the decision to include couples broken by death. It makes clear how important love is, as well as showing what people have been through. The layout and photos look terrific.” Christopher Bram “I couldn’t resist clicking through every page. I never realized the scope of the book would cover centuries!

I know that it will be hugely validating to young, newly-emerging LGBT kids and be reassured that they really can have a secure, respected place in the world as their futures unfold.” Howard Cruse “This international history-and-photo book, featuring 100s of detailed bios of some of the most forward-moving gay persons in history, is sure to be one of those bestsellers that gay folk will enjoy for years to come as reference and research that is filled with facts and fun.” Jack Fritscher

Question: Name the photographer, stage and film designer, well-known for his fashion photography and society portraits. He won Academy Awards for costume design for 'My Fair Lady' & `Gigi'.
Answer: CECIL BEATON